Amazon Interlude Cruise 2019

November 22nd 2019 finally arrived and we headed out to Miami, FL to spend the night at the TownePlace Suites near the airport ready to meet up with our friends Judy and Eladio the next morning.

We took a walk around the vicinity of the hotel before getting an Uber to the Cruise Terminal.  A quick check in and we were off exploring this beautiful Oceania line ship the Insignia.  Wow what a beauty she is and how elegant everything is on board.  We had a lovely lunch on the terrace at the back (the stern) up on deck 9.  We were surprised to see how beautifully the tables were set, the lovely location and the very elegant wait staff - the quality of the food was even better than we had anticipated too.

After lunch we continued exploring the ship and looked at the beautiful Miami skyline from the upper decks.  We were very impressed with our cabin which was in a really great place on the ship, very quiet and calm.

Yes we have a full shower

Lovely robes for going to spa

Our Ocean view in our cabin

After watching the sun go down in Miami, we pulled out a little after 5 and then had a wonderful dinner before listening to the string quartet which was playing at the top of a beautiful staircase on deck 5.

There is always something going on somewhere on the ship - each day an edition of Currents (a listing of events and interesting information/advice) is put on the freshly made up bed.  Every day there are a couple of sessions of chamber music with the string quartet, a couple of sessions of Constantine playing piano in the Martini bar, at least one cultural lecture, games of Trivia, Mensa quizes, baggo, ping pong, bridge as well as some occasional dance classes and such like.  On our first full sea day we went to cooking demonstration by the executive head chef and his sous chef - they were so funny and the food was very good .. sometimes there were questions and correct answers were rewarded with a glass of wine (yes I got a glass of wine at both events ha ha), which of course added to the fun.  At the end of the demo we were invited to sample the food and were given the recipes - so, yes, more great cooking experiences are going to take place at home.  The first demo was for Caramelized Tiger Prawns with Gnocchi and the second was for Tuna in Pistachio Almond crust with tandoori chicken.

With appetites well whetted it was off to lunch on the terrace overlooking a clear blue sea.

Followed by a quiet read in the beautiful, well stocked (over 2,000 books) library.

After 2 fun days cruising the ocean, we finally see our first port approach and start planning (with the help of an amazing lecture from Sandy Cares) our trip ashore. This stop is at the French-speaking Caribbean island of St Barthélemy (affectionately known as St. Barts) where we tender (the lifeboats double duty as our transport to land) to the capital Gustavia.

St. Barts is a very expensive place which made me think of somewhere like St. Tropez or somewhere similar in the south of France.  All the high price, brand name stores seem to have a presence there but it is a very pretty place.

 We couldn't resist a peak in the window of a Realty Office - wow I told you that it was an expensive place didn't I?

However we did find out way to the famed Shell Beach (the beach is made up entirely of crushed shells) where I was able to spend some time swimming in the beautiful clear blue waters.

After another good night sailing the Caribbean Sea we arrived at our next port of call, Castries on the island of St, Lucia where we had the entire day to explore before setting sail again at 5 pm.  We had really been looking forward to this as we were going to Snuba diving for the first time.
There is a lot of evidence of the 'haves' and the 'have nots' in this part of the world and we were surprised to see some of the stores here that we are used to seeing in USA.

We also saw some sights that almost made us feel as though we were back home in Mexico.

After travelling along almost half the length of the island we arrived at Pigeon Island for our Snuba adventure.

Followed of course by a taste of a local brew for the men.

On board ship we were in time for afternoon tea (yes cucumber sandwiches) before setting out for another overnight sail to our next port of call.

On Thursday morning we arrived at Port of Spain in Trinidad - it is very busy around here with lots of oil drilling and freight ship activities.

 At this stop it was also time to refuel the ship - here is the bunker vessel approaching our ship.

Port of Spain is a bustling, lively place with many diverse cultures but that overriding Caribbean vibe is always present and religion shows itself with the many incredible churches and cathedrals.

Cathedral of the Immaculate Concepcion

We walked many miles around the town all the way out to the local market, the Prime Minister's residence (by accident) and to the Royal Botanic gardens.

National Shrine of the Holy Rosary of the Blessed Virgin Mary

Trinidad President's house

National Museum and Art Gallery

In the Royal Botanic gardens, after wandering around and soaking up the beauty for a while we headed off to the public restrooms which were far from anywhere and were approached by a man who was obviously not an employee, who had little baggies of who knows what that he was trying to sell but he was a wealth of information about the plants and trees but we just couldn't shake him, we just wanted to use the restroom and start the very long, very hot walk back to the dock .. finally he showed us where the rest rooms were and was very clearly looking for a tip, we gave him the few US dollars that we had with us and he voiced his disapproval at the lack of a more generous tip before we managed to escape to explore more on our own, in our own quiet way,

After this incredible day, we remembered that it was Thanksgiving day in USA and we had a lovely traditional dinner on the terrace deck on board Insignia.

We spent the next 2 days cruising the Atlantic Ocean and enjoying cultural lectures, playing Trivia and other games as well a having lots of amazing meals and enjoying shows every evening.  Then on day 9, December 1st, after several time changes,we finally got to see the water change - finally we were in the incredibly large brown waters of the Amazon river.  There was still no land as far as we could see, it is hard to imagine a river that is every bit as large as an ocean, a river with so much water that it has it's own tidal flows and full size container ships roam it's waters along with the cruise ships, local boats and barges and a whole lot more.

Of course we had to celebrate the day with another amazing meal but this time we chose to eat in the beautiful 'Grand Dining Room'.

The next day was the first of several exciting Amazon river port days.  We arrived in Santaren where we had to once again tender to shore - we loved watching the lifeboat getting lowered right outside our window from the deck immediately above us and of course it was always fun catching the boat to shore.  Santarem is on the Trapajós river which is not muddy like the Amazon.

Once ashore we saw a lot of the local 'birdcage' boats which are the river equivalent of chicken buses as they carry goods and people up and down the river.  They are fitted with hammocks for the passengers to sleep on - some people journey up the river for a couple of weeks to get to their destination, that is how big the Amazon river is.  In fact, in Manaus which is as far as we went, people traveled another 7 days upriver in the birdcages.

Here you can see the empty pallets where goods have just been offloaded, waiting for more freight to be loaded - even motorbikes are on board ready for use by the passengers at their destination once they have finished hanging out in the hammocks for a week or more ha ha

We did not find much to do in the immediate vicinity in Santarem and we needed to get a shuttle bus (provided free by the local tourism office) to get to the port buildings.  

We ended up getting the shuttle bus out to the mall that they are so proud of, not that we wanted to go to the mall but it was a great chance to be driven around the local roads.

Everywhere that we went made us feel at home because it looked so much like Mexico, though the parts of Mexico with poor infrastructure, not where the wealthy people live.

That night we sailed out into the sunset, leaving the Tapaos river behind as we headed along the Amazon for our next port of call, a small village called Boca de Valeria.

A pretty rudimentary dock has been set up on the edge of the river Amazon, we tendered to this amazing cultural village and were met by two lines of children waiting to take our hands and escort us around their home town. This small Brazilian settlement only has about 100 people living there but they have turned rural tourism into a true art form - in spite of the fact that there is no tourism infrastructure (nor roads, just dirt walking tracks) hundreds of visitors are constantly attracted here to appreciate the charm and spirituality of the authentic simple life that this group of Amerindians has been living for centuries.

Our landing site

The children have been taught the essentials of hospitality and are very welcoming.  Once at their village all the children are dressed in traditional clothing and show us their various 'pets', their houses and their school, church and bar.

The crew of our ship have a lovely tradition where they collect all sorts of gifts for the villagers, clothes, toys and food etc.  It is wonderful to see the children follow the crew members into the village and form two lines to get their gifts.  

Claudio the General Manager escorted into the village

We hired a local and his old canoe to take us up one of the many rivers in the area - he drove us all the way up to where the older children take a boat to get to their school.

After the children have been boated up to the landing place near their school, they walk up a long dirt hill to get to the school at the top, where the rest of the village is.

After one of the main highlights of our trip, we were treated to a magnificent sunset over the Amazon river as we headed out to our next port of call.

That night we got dressed up and had dinner in one of the posh specialty restaurants - we had 4 reservations for the 2 specialty restaurants.  I really like the way that everyone gets to have 4 reservations because this lets everyone have a chance to eat in the more classy restaurants.  The meals there are absolutely amazing and I had the best porterhouse steak of my entire life on that night.  These specialty restaurants are included in the cost of our cruise!

After leaving the Atlantic Ocean behind 3 days and 4 nights ago, we finally arrived in the big bustling city of Manaus on December 4th - just a little reminder of how big the Amazon really is.  

As we stood out on deck watching our arrival and the crew tying off the ship, we saw that our arrival was being greeted by some local tribal dancers.

We decided to take our own walking tour to discover Manaus in our own way and found that the street vendors were once again very reminiscent of our home in Mexico.

However the City Market which also sells fresh produce but with a much greater volume, was an awesome site to see and we wandered around there for ages exploring and looking at all the similarities and differences to the fruits and vegetables that we are used to getting in our own small town market.

We walked for miles that day and discovered the Palacio Rio Negro (Black River Palace) which has amazing antiques and pieces of art.

From there we wandered around generally enjoying all the different styles of architecture.

This is actually the local Hospital

From there we walked out to the Teatro Amazons , the cupula (dome) of which can be seen from the cruise about 2 kilometers away.  We weren't allowed in without being part of a tour group and we had decided not to join a tour group today but I found this picture of the interior.

Walking around the vicinity we came across this wonderful example of paving - the pattern is used a lot in the area as it symbolizes the "marriage of the waters" where the Amazon and the Rio Negro merge.  The waters of the Amazon are brown and the waters of the Rio Negro are black - the two waters also have different Ph levels and the division can be clearly seen.

We stayed overnight in Manuas and had a Native Village tour booked for the second day.  In order to get to the village we took a water taxi and even just that ride was a lot of fun because there was so much to see on the way to the village.

The black waters of the Rio Negro

This bridge spans the width of the Rio Negro (there are no bridges crossing the Amazon) - it is a main road from one of the suburbs of Manaus and is the only way across the river for those rich people from Manaus to get to their weekend holiday homes on the other side of the river.

A beach escape for some people from Manaus

We arrived at the village and made our way to the communal lodge building where we were introduced to the tribe and told some of their heritage.  This particular tribe is actually a group of people from several tribes, they are only allowed to marry people whose native language is different from theirs and they are keeping all the old customs and their culture in tact.  Their sole income is from tourists who come to their village to see their traditional way of life.

After talks by the Chief's son and a few other elders, we were treated to dancing and invited individually by tribal members to join in.

We admired their traditional art work, another great source of income for them, wandered around their village and were told about traditional food preparation methods.  

They use casava a lot and have to be vary careful because it can be very toxic before it is cooked.  Their diet is also infused with high protein dried fish, ants and grubs and they use a long woven tube which they stretch to use as a kind of sieve to remove the water from cassava while it is being prepared for cooking.

Woven tube for removing water from Cassave

Ants ready to eat

Grubs ready for the table

We said goodbye to the villagers and headed back to our water taxi to head back along the river, to an old rubber plantation on one of the backwaters.

On the way back along the river, white flags were pointed out to us and we were told that wherever a white flag was hanging, those were friendly villages and we would be welcome there but it is best not to try to approach a village that is not hanging a white flag.

Arriving at the rubber plantation we were agape at the site of another dock that is used to load the rubber on to steam ships during the wet season when the water is higher .. how much higher does this great river get?  see for yourself!

 We saw how cuts were made on the rubber tree and a collection pot attached -  The sap only flows for a day and then new cuts have to be made.

We wandered around the Company Store - remember the song 16 Tons, yup it was a lot of exhausting work and absolutely everything that the laborers wanted had to be bought at the company store.  So many people were promised a wonderful life on the rubber plantation but ended up in virtually a life of slavery.

There was a little church on the plantation land and it was only ever used for weddings.

As we were approaching our ship at the end of this very full and exciting day, we saw a fleet of school buses - just like the yellow school buses in USA only these were boats.  Look at the floating garbage barge next to them - this barge is constantly filling up with garbage from all the boats and ships but we were never able to find out where it gets offloaded.

Another great night on board with super entertainment, food and a good night's sleep and we were ready for another fun day.  Coffee and biscotti from the barista and we headed out to explore Parintins - we had a 'tricycle' tour booked for this adventure!

Our first stop was the Catedral de Nossa Senhora do Carmo which was inaugurated in 1981 after many years of fundraising - The Cathedral pays homage to Nossa Senhora do Carmo, patron saint of the city, making the church much loved by the Catholic faithful of Parintins. Its facade is all covered in tiles and has a 42 meter high tower, where the image of Our Lady watches over the city and the Amazon River.

Although this appears to be just another church, the tile work is really amazing - all a labor of love and we noticed that some slabs of marble were actually painted concrete!  wow, great job.

This was one church that was not loaded with treasures but with incredible murals instead.

Our next stop was the Boi Bumba stadium.  Boi Bumba is part of the annual folkloric festival that celebrates the legend of a sacred bull, who died and was brought back to life by the magical power of drumming. During the festival, various groups recount their own versions of the well-known myth, through a colorful combination of costume, dance, drama, and drumming.  There are two teams that take part in the 'bull fight', a red team and a blue team and this is serious stuff - all over town businesses show their fervent following of either red of blue, even when it is not festival time.

We were taken into the classrooms at the stadium where a lot of the artwork for the show is kept and a lot of training takes place.

In fact, all over town there are amazing pieces of art like this relief mural depicting the history and legends of Parintins.  Note the large fish is called a pirarucu and is part of the colorful legends around the town.

We left our convoy of tricycles and headed out to walk around town and explore some of what we might have missed before heading back to the ship - we bumped into a group of local children who were learning English at school and came out into town to talk to tourists to practice their English - of course this gave us a good chance to practice our Spanish some more.  The children were all very well behaved and carried documents showing that they were students at the school and were authorized to go into town and have conversations with tourists in order to improve their English language skills.

The next day we arrived at Alter do Chão where we again tendered to the edge of town - this was just a very short day as we were to depart at 2 that afternoon.  We spent our time wandering around a town that seemed to be filled with hippies selling their wares, but there were wonderful sandy white beaches and a vibrant atmosphere everywhere.

There was one thing that we just had to make time for though, a kind of rite of passage in Alter do Chão.  We waded across the water from the main beach to the beautiful Ilha do Amor (love island).  Of course we could have taken one of the local boats for hire to cross but where's the fun in that?

After lots of sun and fun and swimming, it was time to cross back to the mainland and return to the ship.

The next few days were spent cruising, eating and generally having fun and on December 8th there was an amazing buffet brunch in the beautiful Grand Dining Rom where all the food was an absolute work of art.

After that fabulous meal, what better way to spend a sea day than to play train with friends in the lovely games room.

That evening we had supper in the Grand Dining Room with the ship's General Manager and his Executive Concierge (Liesl is from South Africa and yes we had a lot to chat about).

The next day was fun and games literally - we had been sleeping during the crossing of the equator on our way to the Amazon so we made up for it crossing back across the equator on the way back.  A full ceremony with lots of games stalls and the main event was paying the price for us newbies that had never crossed the equator on a ship before - Kiss the fish (yes it was real), bow to King Neptune and get doused in ice water.

Day 18, December 10th brought us to Royal Island, French Guiana where we explored the old French penal colony where so many political prisoners and hardened thieves and criminals were sent to live in barbaric conditions.  The book Papillon describes Henri Charrière's successful escape from Devil's Island (a smaller island off Royal Island) but escapes and even return to civilization were very rare, not many people managed to actually serve their term and return to France.

The hospital Building

Solitary Confinement

The next day we had another fun and relaxing sea day before arriving in Bridgetown, Barbados on the morning of December 12th where we had a 'safari taxi' excursion booked.  The 'taxi' was an open sided pickup with benches rather like the vehicles used to transport tourists on safari. We were driven around most of the island which is only 34 kilometers long and 23 kilometers wide but has quite a varied heritage having been claimed by the Spanish, the Portuguese and then the British before it finally gained independence in 1966.  Sugar was responsible for transforming Barbados and there is still a lot of evidence of the sugar plantations even though tourism and some light manufacturing have been the main income generators since the late 1970's

Anglican is the main religion on the island and we saw many examples of old Anglican churches.

We were lucky enough to arrive at the end of the wet seas (there is only the dry season and the wet season in Barbados) and we saw lots of signs of how fertile the island is due to it's temperature conditions and plentiful rainfall (between 40 and 90 inches a year).

As with most places in the world, we also saw plenty of buildings clearly showing the division between the 'haves' and the 'have nots'.

Leaving port that day was an incredible adventure because we were tightly shoehorned in between two other big cruise ships - the captain, pilots and tugs did an incredible job of pulling us out of our birth without a single scratch, so much better than the 'Hawaii' and similar incidents ha ha

On Friday morning we arrived in St. John's, Antigua where we were dwarfed by "The Anthem of the Seas" which was already tied up before we arrived. The sky boom on top of their ship is 300 feet above the water and just looking at it from our own top deck made me dizzy.

Then again our ship had just under 700 passengers compared to their 4,000 - can you imagine being at sea with that many people?

Since we were still at the end of the rainy season, we have an overcast day with lots of heavy showers, we had a 'hop on, hop off' water taxi tour booked and the weather was not going to stop us.  Unfortunately we hadn't been told that we were actually just being taken to two of the beaches (as it turned out we only stopped at one because of the weather) so had not brought our swim suits and towels along :(  Fortunately there was a lot to see along the way and it was a fun trip in spite of the somewhat rough waters and gray skies.

There are a lot of old forts dotted along the coastline as well as beaches where the wealthier locals have their spots set up ready for weekends and holidays.

Sandals has a huge resort on the beach at St. Lawrence gap.

We pulled in to get dropped off at Dickenson Bay for a couple of hours - the waters are that incredible clear blue that you see advertised and dream of.  One of the attractions (apart from the bars, restaurants, sandy beach and awesome water) at this beach is the infamous bright red English telephone booth that appears in many Caribbean photos but which no-one seems to really know why it was planted on the beach.

The skies opened and the rain fell but it didn't stop me from taking a long walk along the beach and a swim in the beautiful warm waters of the bay - well after all, I was already wet wasn't I?

It did make for a long wet boat ride back to the ship and that is when the majority voted to skip visiting the other beach in the rain - we were all ready to head back, take a hot shower, get into dry clothes and visit one of the on board restaurants for a good lunch.

It is still amazing to see our big cruise ship looking so small between Anthem of the Seas (left) and the schooner Wind Surf (which carries up to 342 passengers).

After getting showered and into dry clothes we decided to head out and explore St. John's on foot - it is filled with colorful architecture, street vendors and is definitely not showing a lot of wealth.

We wandered through back streets and shops until we finally ended up at the St. John's Cathedral, a 19th-century Anglican church which is set up on a hill overlooking the town and ocean.  It is currently being renovated so we couldn't go inside and it is definitely overdue for some TLC but is still impressive.

We had not stopped for lunch on the ship before heading out because we decided to go to the famous Hemingway's Cafe in town - a granddaughter of Ernest Hemingway is actually still running this cafe.  We had some of the local rum in daiquiris while eating our lunch and people watching in town from the balcony.  We learned a few lessons there too, the food is somewhat over-priced and our sandwiches came with fries but we saw the sweet potato fries and asked for them to be served in place of the normal fries - when the bill came, they charged us the full price for the sandwich with fries PLUS additional for the sweet potato fries .. yup we are officially tourists ha ha

We were back on board in time for one of our favorite cruising sports, watching for dock runners.  This time we did see them, runners for the Anthem of the Seas which was leaving before us.  There were two sets of people running to get on board before the ship left, the last one was a woman that was helped out by one of the crew who ran along the dock to meet her and carried her shopping bags for her - the passengers on both ships were cheering loudly ha ha

On December 14th we docked in San Juan, Puerto Rico - the weather was clearing and once again headed out to explore on foot, this time accompanied by Judy and Eladio.

Puerto Rico is another colorful place with many architectural styles and many signs of both wealth and poverty. We were headed to the Manolin restaurant in old San Juan - Eladio knows this place as a good, cheap, local eatery and it is so popular among the locals that people actually queue behind your seat waiting to take your place.  We sat at a long counter and ate traditional Mofongo which has fried plantains as its main ingredient. Plantains are picked green and fried, then mashed with salt, garlic, broth, and olive oil in a wooden pilón

It was really delicious even though it doesn't particularly look it.

We did a whole lot more of walking around and exploring after lunch, through the beautiful town plaza where the 'missing' statue on the fountain caught our eyes and imagination, on to the Governor's Palace which was all decorated up for Christmas.

We visited the Chapel of "La Joya" in old town San Juan - it was built in 18th century and managed to avoid being demolished in 20th century so is quite famous around those parts and has become a cultural icon.  It is said that there was a horse race taking place on this street (which is now a pedestrian only area with coffee shops, restaurants and art galleries) and one of the riders and his horse took a bad fall at the end of the road, the rider was thrown over the precipice but was miraculously saved.  The chapel was built at the site of the accident, to honor the young rider.

This alter is made of silver and gold

No trip to an Latin American country is complete without visiting some of the incredible cathedrals. In this beautiful cathedral ( San Juan Bautista) we realized that colonnades, niches and even the railings way up in the dome of the roof were actually painted, not real.

We visited the Totem Teljurico which is made from black granite and clays from all across the Americas, it is about 40 feet tall and is the focal point of the square overlooking the ocean.  The square pays tribute to (and was built to celebrate the 500 year anniversary of) the discovery of Puerto Rico and the New World by European navigators and was built to celebrate the 500 year anniversary and meant to signify the origins of the various peoples of the Americas.

We kept walking until we reached the Castillo de San Cristobal on top of the hill overlooking the ocean.  This fort was built by the Spanish to protect the city of San Juan and is the largest fort built by the Spanish in the "New World".  The massive grassy area leading up to the fort has been declared open space and it is common for picnicking and kite flying to take place here.  This place is also a great place to look out over the ocean and the white cemetery below.

Can you imagine this as a final resting place?

It is clear that a lot of rebuilding and renovations has been going on in San Juan and, as always, there are the good and the 'bad' areas but nothing that some street art won't beautify.

After a long exciting day we started heading back to our ship, through the Plaza Colon, which is  is paved in marble is has a group of lampposts in bronze that date over more than one hundred years.  Finally we found out about the 'missing' statue.  A mime was performing, covering himself with rags and what appeared to be a chalky paste.  The end result was the missing statue which he became when he took his place on top of the empty pedestal.

Evening was here and the light was fading, we were glad that we had a long stop in this port.  As we headed back to the ship we saw crowds filling all the open spaces along the ocean front and then remembered that this evening was the annual Christmas boat parade - we ended up with the best viewing spot, the restaurant deck at the back of our ship where we were amazed at all the brightly illuminated boats parading in front of us as we leisurely sipped our drinks and waited for supper.

Next stop, December 15th was also our final port of call before returning to Miami - we arrived in Dominican Republic, to a small cruise terminal called La Romana.  We had been scheduled to dock at another port, Punta Cana but the captain determined that the conditions were better at La Romana.

There really wasn't much to do in the immediate area of La Romana and we did not have an excursion booked (there really wasn't much to book here), the weather was not very good either so we went and found the local taxis.  Eladio negotiated with the taxi driver so the four of us and another couple ended up hiring the taxi for a 'sightseeing' tour for the price of only a trip to town (about $15 each).  We drove around for about 5 hours hearing all sorts of stories about the local politics and about the monied people and how all the kids try to get to be trained for baseball - definitely a major part of the local life.

The sad buildings and happy Christmas tree

Young hopefuls going to baseball training

Another huge part of the Dominican Republic is the remnants of the sugar industry.  Sugar was introduced in the 1500's by Spain and this started an escalation of the slave trade and the growth of the elite, the sugar mill owners.  This history can be seen all around with some old sugar mills but also with the very expensive homes on what were once sugar plantations.  We got the impression that sugar industry workers can still live under somewhat slave like conditions and that the town itself was pretty much all owned by the sugar company - people work for 'the company' and the schooling and shops and everything is tied to company membership.  Our taxi driver worked for the company and was able to drive us into some places that we would not otherwise have been able to go to.  We saw signs of poverty and extreme wealth all around.

After a trip around an area where the rich and famous live, we drove to Altos de Chavon which is a reproduction of  a Bavarian village. There are lots of narrow, cobble-covered alleyways with lanterns and shuttered limestone walls.  The village has some Mediterranean-style restaurants, lots of little  shops with craftwork of local artisans as well as three galleries which the work of students from the on-site design school (La Escuela de Diseño, an affiliate of Parsons School of Design in New York City).  Also in this village is St. Stanislaus Church with a beautiful plaza and fountain - this Church overlooking the river is a popular wedding venue.

The village houses the Regional Museum of Archaeology and has a 5,000 amphitheater which has hosted concerts by lots of big names like The Pet Shop Boys, Frank Sinatra, and Julio Iglesias.  There is also a nightclub there.

That was quite an adventure for what started out to be just a rainy day in a place which we thought had not much to offer.  The next two days were sea days, two days of sailing back to Miami but we had a lot of fun, there is always something to do if you want to have fun.  We attended another hilarious cooking demonstration and did our first ever Escape Room which we really enjoyed and got one of the best times for escaping!

On our last evening aboard, we cashed in all the O points that we had earned from Trivia, Mensa and many fun games times - we were surprised by the quality and quantity of gifts that we were able to get from those points - quite a good ending to a great cruise.  All the women were sad to be saying goodbye to all the good times that we had been having but all the men were more than ready to go home .. here's looking forward to the next cruise (Panama Canal in November 2020) and all the exciting adventures to be had.